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Excellent article on the “girlfriend” stories...there were 3 different recollections of the conversation...

The portion of the phone interview that was released takes just a few seconds to listen to. It was broadcast on ABC’s Young Turks and then on World News with Diane Sawyer. Dee-Dee’s actual words are

“he say this man was watching him so he put his hoodie on. Trayvon say what you are following me for. Then the man say what you doin’ round here. Someone push Trayvon because the headset just fell.” After the first sentence a reporter interpolates: “Suddenly Martin was cornered.”

A different version, though credited to ABC, was broadcast on CNN. This is the interview featured on the Parks and Crump website.

“He was walkin’ fast when he say this man behind him again. He come an say this look like he about to do somethin’ to him. And then Trayvon come an say the man was still behind him and then I come an say run.”

In its printed rendition, ABC provided still a third version:

“He said this man was watching him, so he put his hoodie on. He said he lost the man. I asked Trayvon to run, and he said he was going to walk fast. I told him to run, but he said he was not going to run.”

“Trayvon said, ‘What are you following me for,’ and the man said, ‘What are you doing here.’ Next thing I hear is somebody pushing, and somebody pushed Trayvon because the head set just fell. I called him again, and he didn’t answer the phone.”

The printed ABC version has been edited and cleaned up to emphasize two things: 1) that a frightened Martin was pursued, escaped, and then caught by George Zimmerman and 2) that Zimmerman started the fight.

A few problems with each claim:

We know from Zimmerman’s phone call that Martin was aware of him at most 40 seconds into the call, or by around 7:10. He was shot at about 7:16. From where Zimmerman was standing, it was about 850 feet to the townhouse Martin was staying in. Had he walked fast, the seventeen-year-old could have been back home in less than a minute. There would have been no conversation and no fight.

No guy will admit he’s lost, but Dee-Dee does not report Martin saying anything like “these @#$% buildings all look alike.” If Martin was not disoriented, the only reason he did not return directly to the townhouse was because he chose not to.

As for the final words Dee-Dee reported hearing:

1. They don’t sound anything like the immediate prelude to a fight. Two questions are asked: Why are you following me? and What are you doing here? Without knowing anything about the individuals who asked them, it’s difficult to believe these words would provoke a fight without any further exchanges.

2. Zimmerman had called the police 5 minutes earlier. He expected an officer to arrive at any moment. The last thing he wanted to do is get into a fight with the guy he’s called them about. If he got out of his truck a second time — and this seems to be the key piece of evidence in the prosecutor’s case — common sense says that he was attempting to locate the suspicious stranger so he could point the officer in the right direction.

3. Among the six individuals making 911 calls, at least one reported hearing an argument before the fight broke out. The woman’s account was presented as a rebuttal to the eyewitness who had seen Martin on top, beating Zimmerman. Unfortunately, she had seen nothing. But she did hear loud voices, that of a “man,” deeper and more aggressive, and a quieter “boy.” There was not merely an exchange of questions.

4. What does pushing sound like? Even the media does not insist that the fight began with Zimmerman pushing Martin, though this now seems to be widely believed.

5. If Zimmerman did in fact ask Martin what he was doing here, there was a perfectly good answer: “I happen to be staying with my dad and his girlfriend, a**hole.” And he could have given the address. This was not how Martin responded.

6. You have every right to approach a suspicious stranger walking in your community and ask him what he’s doing there. This is not chasing or stalking. The stranger in this case was 6’ 2” or 6’ 3” and weighed about 160 pounds. It was a little after 7 p.m. in a gated community. If he was simply returning from an errand (though we know now he was not), he had no reason to be frightened. Perhaps the little twelve-year-old in the hoodie might have been scared, but it says something about the veracity of Dee-Dee’s story that it needs this dishonest illustration to make it stick.

So what did happen in the final moments before the fight? According to Zimmerman, he was headed back to his truck for the second time when he was surprised by Martin, who was waiting for him between two buildings. The teenager said, “Do you have a f***ing problem?,” and when Zimmerman replied “no,” said, “You do now,” and decked him. Zimmerman told police that he reached for his cell as he said “no.”

If in fact he was not challenged as he reported — the “do you have a f***ing problem?” being a purely rhetorical question — the possibility exists that Martin thought Zimmerman was reaching for a weapon, and struck him in self-defense. But if Zimmerman is telling the truth, it was he who was waylaid by the teenager, not the other way around, and that Martin’s attack on him was premeditated.

Julison, the spokesman for the Crump law firm, said that there were no plans to release a fuller version of the phone interview with Dee-Dee, and that the girl would not be speaking to the media again. The next time we hear from her, he said, will be in court, if she’s asked to testify.